Unfortunately, there has been a gap in coverage of our little jaunt in the North Cascades- we were captured and held hostage by a tribe of Bigfoot (or is it Bigfeet?).  Either way, we escaped and fled back into town in the hopes that we could post an update.

Obviously that excuse is a load of horse feathers.  We simply spent a day in the high country, shooting rifles, enjoying the scenery and baking under the western sun.  By the time we arrived back at our hotel room at 10 p.m. eastern time, we were a tired puppy and chose not to file a report.

Now, operating on Mountain Time, we got up bright and early (the crack of 9 a.m. at home) to file a report for both of our regular readers.

As stated previously, our objective is to review a long-distance shooting class for S.W.A.T. Magazine.   We have been flown here under the care of SureFire Tactical Flashlights.  The company has been very good to us indeed.

Wednesday dawned clear and dry, as it does every summer day in Yakima.  Though the coastal rain forests of Washington state are less than 60 miles away, Yakima sits in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains and had a dry, Mediterranean-like climate.  However, it is also blessed with ample river water and the region is one of the biggest fruit-producing regions in the country.  All in all, the scenery and weather are outstanding.

We drove into the mountains surrounding Yakima on a tortuous route that offered outstanding scenery and glimpses of the old west.  As we drove higher in elevation, the irrigated fields gave way to scrub land which eventually turned into high mountain meadows dotted by thin pine forests intersperse with aspen groves.  In the occasional river bottoms, grass and willow grew thickly, obscuring the water.

Following directions, dead-reckoning and finally a few signs, we pulled into a high mountain valley straight out of a John Wayne movie.  Surrounded by national forest land, the rancher was busy moving a small herd of recalcitrant cattle into another field.  Wild lupine dotted the thin grass and mule deer stood watching us in the shadows of the tall pines.

It didn’t take much imagination to see The Duke on horseback on one side of the meadow, putting his horse’s reins into his teeth while his hands were occupied with a big Colt pistol and a Winchester lever-action rifle as he prepared to charge a pack of murderous cutthroats in True Grit.   “Fill your hands, you son-of-a-bitches!” he bellows before spurring his horse.

That is good stuff, especially if you are a little boy or unreconstructed writer, not that there is much difference between the two.

The valley where we would be shooting belonged to the Thomas Bass Ranch, one of the original homesteads in the area during the early 1900′s and route of the first stagecoach line between Elletsburg and Yakima.  As we learned about the area it was also easy to visualize a rattling, lumbering stagecoach churning down the wild, dusty high country trail at a time when my own little Midwest town was over seventy years old and already quite urbane.

After disgorging our mountain of gear from the rental SUV we met out instructor Caylen Wojcik, owner of Central Cascade Precision (CCP…not “CCCP” as I continually and inadvertently kept saying.  As a refresher, the CCCP was the old Soviet Union.)  Caylen has a resume that is too long to post here but to borrow a cliche, he has worn out several t-shirts in the Marine Corps and beyond.

Our classroom was set on a high grassy point in the meadow under two portable shelters.  We began with administrative formalities and a few hours of classroom instruction on the finer points of putting bullets onto a target that you almost can’t see with the naked eye.   Judging by student introductions, it seemed that everyone in the class had more than passing familiarity with long-range riflery and it seemed likely that we would be able to proceed at a rapid pace.

After a field lunch of MRE’s (Meals Refused by Ethiopians, AKA military field rations) we settled onto the firing line.

The first afternoon was spent getting our rifles squared away and sighted in after the cross-country trip that most of the students and weapons had endured.   Under the deep blue sky, the temperature rose to the upper eighties and it sometimes grew hot, at least until a touch of breeze would slide up the valley to churn the meadow grasses in ocean waves until it moved along to somewhere else.  Fortunately, compared to the armpit-like conditions of central Indiana in July, the humidity was only in the 20% range so a wet cloth on the back of the neck felt delightfully cooling.

It was a pleasant, low-stress way to spend an afternoon and before we knew it, it was time to break down our gear, have a short talk under the trees about weapon cleaning then head home.  For the record, I was using a new GA Precision rifle topped with Schmidt & Bender scope in .308 caliber.  Considering the weapon system probably cost more than my first two vehicles combined, we are happy to report that Your Humble Servant shot reasonably well.

Today is a late start as we will be going until midnight in order to shoot our weapons during darkness hours.  Surefire has provided some sophisticated night vision optics and this should prove both interesting and challenging.  We must admit that we are also very much looking forward to seeing twilight and nightfall in the mountains.

Until the next report- BW

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